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“Kaiya,” he said, nodding at me. “I have your room key. Your luggage has been taken upstairs already. Come.” He gestured for me to follow. I didn’t notice which floor he selected in the lift, or the numbers on the doors we passed when we walked down the corridor, but I did notice that the hotel was much nicer than the ones we normally stayed in, which were usually franchise hotels.

Eventually we came to a door, but instead of using the room key, he knocked. I had just begun to frown, when the door was pulled open. Jihoon stood there, eyes immediately darting from Youngsoo to me. His chest heaved, but his face remained almost expressionless, but for the flicker in his eyes.

“Gamsahmnida, Youngsoo,” he said, not taking his eyes off me.

Youngsoo hummed a noncommittal reply as he handed me a room key. It had a different number on it than the one Jihoon stood in. Youngsoo turned and walked back the way we’d come.

“Will you come in?” Jihoon asked, and I couldn’t have said why exactly, but that he had asked instead of assumed took me by surprise.

I nodded, and he moved aside to let me pass. The room was exactly how I might have expected a Paris hotel suite fit for a celebrity to look. ‘Opulent’ was the word my mind latched onto, but the individual details were lost on me. Dimly, I heard the door close behind me a moment before I felt his hands on my arms, the heat of his chest pressing against my back, his breath moving through my hair as he leaned down. I felt him inhale, and it was ragged.

My eyes slid closed, and my head fell forward, and for just a moment I didn’t need to pretend to be okay.

“I saw you fall,” he said, lips so close to my hair that I felt the words as much as heard them. “When you were waiting to get on the bus. I saw you nearly go down. I tried to move, but I couldn’t get through the crowd, or our security. I do not think they even knew I was trying to push through,” he huffed quietly. “I saw you leave the bus queue. I saw you because you were the only person moving away. I watched you get in the taxi, and I figured you were okay, that you were maybe going with some of the crew, but that’s when she turned around, and I saw her. Kaiya, I knew it was her. I’ll know her face until the day I die. And when I saw the car drive away… I thought I’d go mad. I panicked. I’ve never–”

He broke off, and I felt him shuddering as he dropped his forehead against my hair.

“I grabbed Eun. I don’t know what I said, but he followed me when I broke from the crowd. I was so relieved when your car had not gone far. I did not think, Kaiya, I just followed.”

“You were watching the entire time?”

Of all the things my brain could have latched on to, of all the questions I could have asked him, somehow this felt like the most important one to me. His hands briefly tightened on me.

“Always.”

My breath caught in my throat, and for a second, just the barest moment, I wanted to turn in his arms and not care about any objection or obstacle.

But I didn’t get the chance to throw caution to the wind, because at just the moment where I might have folded, a knock sounded from the door a moment before it opened.

“Joon-ah… oh. Mianhaeyo.”

I stepped out of Jihoon’s hands and turned to see Minjae standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets, politely looking at the wall instead of in our direction.

“That’s okay. I need to go anyway. I still have some stuff to do, and honestly, I just wanna shower and sleep.”

As I said it, I realised how true it was. I was bone weary, and I just wanted to wash the day away. I looked over my shoulder at Jihoon, but I couldn’t read his expression.

“See you later,” I said.

“Soon,” he promised, and something in the way he said it made my stomach flip.

I turned and moved towards the door, moving politely past Minjae, who nodded at me as I did.

I was halfway down the corridor heading for the lift when a voice called out behind me.

“Kaiya, wait,” Minjae jogged to catch up, and I looked at him in surprise as he stopped in front of me.

“I know this is not my business, but I’m asking because I need to. Are you and Jihoon together?”

I blinked, my mouth automatically opening with a rebuttal when something else came out, something I hadn’t meant to say.

“What did Jihoon say?”

Minjae frowned. “I’m asking you.”

Something in his tone made me uneasy. Perceived in a way that felt too much like scrutiny, and just this side of judgement.

“Why?” I asked carefully.